Comment by bd_at_rivenhill

I've worked in automated option market making in the past; if I were on a jury hearing this case, there's no way I would convict these guys of spoofing. They are taking advantage of a feature built in to the market for purposes similar to this: hiding your intentions. The only people who could realistically be damaged by this are professionals, retail customers will either benefit from the tiny bit of extra liquidity added by the 1 or won't be adversely affected by the hidden AON orders on the other side. The algo traders who complained to the SEC should be embarrassed at doing so; they should have been burned on a couple of trades, figured out what they were doing wrong and fixed their code to compensate. Blindly stepping up your quote or order for size on a 1 lot in order to capture rebate is just foolish and anyone who can make money off you for doing so should be entitled to it.